Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33977 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-01
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: PAL
• Subtitled in: German, English, Italian, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Medea rules!
'Teseo' is a rarely performed early opera by Handel, one of his 'magical' operas which was in its day filled with breathtaking special effects and spectacular scene changes. Unfortunately this recent production by Axel Kohler is neither breathtaking nor spectacular! Sets and costumes by Stephan Dietrich are perfectly serviceable but rather anonymous and much of Kohler's ideas for the piece don't really work. To be fair, it would actually be quite difficult for anyone to pull off convincingly such scenes as the one where Medea and her demons torment the unfortunate heroine Agilea but here the whole thing is just laughable with said demons doing nothing more than some rather clunky dances and not going anywhere near the girl at all. Much of the 'risque' action is just embarressing and (apart from one notable exception) none of the characters really come to life.

The one character who does work is the sorceress Medea who, played by the extraordinary mezzo soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling, truly dominates the opera from the moment of her entrance at the start of Act 2. Wesseling skulks, sulks, smirks and struts her way around the stage with wild hair and make up and really flings herself into the role. When she is on the stage its difficult to take your eyes off her - its a great performance! Her powerful, agile and slightly wild voice is ideally suited to the part also. Vocally, the only other soloist who can compete is soprano Sharon Rostorf-Zamir as the hapless Agilea, a lovely pure tone. The other soprano, Miriam Meyer has a pretty, smallish voice. None of the three countertenors are especially good - the strongest being Martin Wolfel in the role of the king, Egeo. Jacek Laszczkowski in the title role, looks the part but the voice is pretty thin and weedy.

As we are unlikely to get another DVD performance of 'Teseo' anytime soon (if ever) its a pity to be less than enthusiastic about this one. However, it IS worth seeing for Wesseling's complete performance and Rostorf-Zamir's vocal one. For a purely aural experience, the Minkowski CDs are pretty good and there's a recital disc with Wesseling that includes many of the Medea arias.